With 5 years, 165 days of credited service, [Jose Bautista] was just one week - seven measly days - shy of the 172 days needed to qualify for a full season and hit the magical threshold of 6 years for free agency….

He did receive a call-up when rosters expanded, but at the unusually late date of September 16th. Why? In August he was promoted to AAA Indianapolis, who qualified for the International League playoffs as the wild card. Their playoff run ended September ...

Among men who wager a tiny bit here and a tiny bit there, a $2 bill is looked upon as an infernal jinx…a $2 bill is about as welcome as a tarantula in a Pullman sleeper.
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They told [Giants second baseman] Charley Herzog about that superstition going out on the train to Chicago after the Giants had made it two-all in the world’s series.

“I’m a contrary cuss. I’m going through this train and weed out every two-dollar bill that I can find. Two unlucky? ...

I missed Cora’s time at ESPN because, frankly, MLB Network’s coverage of the game is far superior. Nevertheless, I’m sure his media time will serve him well in Boston.

“I think it served him well in that sense,” said ESPN’s Eduardo Perez, a former big leaguer who has known Cora and his family for decades. “Watching the game from a media standpoint, you’re paying attention to every team and seeing all the angles. It slows the game down for you once you go back to the field.

“Capitalist nations will crumble and die from the inside — not the outside,” one of the pitchers said.

“Communism is not the end in itself,” another pitcher said. “It’s only a way to socialize the entire world, so special-interest groups will be the master. And we? We will be the slaves. If, that is, we even live.”

A third pitcher nodded at these ideas and said: “Before, I was just one of those people ignorant of what really goes on.”

Sunday, November 05, 2017

The Dodgers bid farewell to outfielder Andre Ethier on Sunday, declining his 2018 option and casting the longest-tenured member of their roster into free agency.
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In his 12 major league seasons — all with the Dodgers — he made two All-Star teams and batted .285 with 162 home runs. His 303 doubles rank second to Willie Davis in the franchise’s Los Angeles history.

Drafted by Oakland, but acquired for the low, low price of one Milton Bradley!!!

Saturday, November 04, 2017

In what was the first significant roster decision for new ownership, the Marlins on Friday declined their $2 million club option to retain Ichiro, who now becomes a free agent. Suzuki will receive a $500,000 buyout.

Friday, November 03, 2017

“[We want you to be] able to compete in a league with other people in ladders, moving up the ladder and being able to differentiate yourself that way,” he said.

...

So OOTP is experimenting and thinking up ways for people to engage with its two sports sims without requiring a download. It isn’t announcing any specifics about how that might work for now, but the company is looking around at what other games are doing. At the same time, the studio doesn’t want to screw up something good ...

According to Neifi, a player evaluation and projection system that’s licensed to major league teams, the combined value of the Astros’ players under team control, at both the major- and minor-league levels, dwarfs that of any other team, exceeding the second-place Indians’ total by $244 million. (The Dodgers rank third.) Most of that value comes from homegrown guys—draftees and international signees—some of whom predate the current ...

William Saier, uncle of Vic Saier, first baseman of the Chicago Cubs, one of the best known men of Lansing, is divesting himself of a coat of tar and feathers today. The coat was applied by a delegation of citizens who claim Saier is a pro-German.

The tar and feathering of Saier was given after a mock trial by a jury of twenty white-robed vigilants. He is said to have admitted he was a pro-German, that he subscribed to the Liberty loan under pressure, and to ...

Kapler may turn out to be ahead of his time, and a great hire — he has some very great strengths. But it wasn’t a small number of people he had trouble with during his time in L.A. Some see Philly as a team that is also thinking outside the box in making the surprise hire. Others wonder if the Phillies simply have a tin ear.

They took a month to make the hire, stepping outside their rep as a conservative organization. They view ...

Thursday, November 02, 2017

Dave Dombrowski has known Tony La Russa for nearly 40 years, since they worked together with the Chicago White Sox. Given the chance to reunite, Dombrowski created a front-office position for La Russa—vice president and special assistant to the president of baseball operations—in which the Hall of Fame manager will assist with player development and serve as a consultant to the major and minor league coaching staffs, including rookie manager Alex Cora…..Although La Russa was careful to say he ...

As happens so often in a long series, the joys and triumphs of the winners and their rooters remain pure, while the rest of us, and not only the Dodger fans, try not to think about several inexorable but excruciating failures and pains. We must put aside, for instance, what today must look like for Yu Darvish, last night’s Dodger starter, who was gone after those two innings, and who had lasted for a bare five outs in his Game One start, while coughing up six hits and four runs. Dodger first ...

“Maybe one of these days I won’t fail, we won’t fail and we’ll win one of these things,’’ Kershaw said, finding little consolation in the team’s 104 regular-season victories. “…There’s only one team that can succeed. There’s only one team that wins the last game, so that’s tough.

“I think once the dust settles and we go home, we can realize that we had a pretty amazing season and we finished in second place, which nobody cares about or remembers.’‘

The MLB-NPB posting agreement expired Tuesday. The sides, though, were close to an agreement to move to a system whereby the Japanese team losing a player to MLB would receive a percentage of the deal the player signed with an MLB club — believed to be between 15 and 20 percent.

However, Otani’s team, the Nippon Ham Fighters, refused to give its needed vote to the deal unless the righty pitcher was grandfathered into the old deal, whereby the Fighters would receive the maximum $20 million ...

Congressional Republicans proposed barring the sale of municipal bonds for professional sports stadiums and privately run infrastructure projects such as toll roads and airports, a step that’s at odds with President Donald Trump’s push to increase funding for public works.

The tax-cutting bill released Thursday would also eliminate advanced refundings of debt issues, a popular refinancing technique with state and local governments, as well as bonds ...

The bosses of the Pacific Coast league were still in session at the St. Francis hotel at 11 o’clock last night and each one was blaming the other fellow for calling the meeting…This gathering is only a special one and no one seems to know what it is all about.
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[Los Angeles owner Hen Berry] said there is a possibility that Vernon will be dropped. He says Los Angeles does not like continuous baseball and the game will be better there with only one club.

While his teammates sprayed beer and champagne around a cramped visitors clubhouse at Dodger Stadium following their 5-1 Game 7 win, Beltran, who saw only three at-bats in the series and did not record a hit, suggested he will consider retirement.

“My decision is going to be difficult — playing one more year, or deciding to stay home,” he told For The Win. “But staying home won’t mean staying at home. Staying home would still mean being able to be around the game of baseball. I love ...

According to reports in local baseball circles yesterday, Ban B. Johnson’s application to fight in the trenches in France has been pigeonholed in the archives of the appointment clerk’s office in the War Department.
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It seems that the government officials at Uncle Sammy’s army factory could find no jobs which would fit the qualifications of the American League boss.

If Johnson literally asked to fight in the trenches, I can’t imagine the response was ...